


Soldier Bride

by ohheichoumyheichou



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Abuse of Authority, Backstory, Canon Compliant, Dark Past, Dubious Consent, Light Angst, M/M, Past Rape/Non-con, Pederasty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-28
Updated: 2014-10-25
Packaged: 2018-02-10 17:55:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2034534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohheichoumyheichou/pseuds/ohheichoumyheichou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sexual mentorship relationships are a longstanding custom in the Survey Corps. Levi and Eren are in a relationship that Eren doesn't want, but doesn't feel he has a right to refuse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Sometimes Levi comes down to the dungeon, and gets on the bed beside Eren without saying a single word. What is there to say? They both know why he's there, and they both know that this is what happens between them at night. Eren wonders if they both know that he doesn't really care for it. He's never put it into so many words, and Levi never asked. He only asks Eren right in the moment "does this feel good, like this," and it's gruffly asked, without a real question mark in the tone. Eren doesn't have to lie to answer yes. Whatever Levi happens to be doing at that moment usually feels good, sometimes tinged with pain, sometimes not. Eren is not afraid of pain, and he's never stopped Levi, never asked him to slow down. Maybe because Eren feels a certain pride too, in never making Levi doubt what he's doing, in never being insubordinate or even hesitant in following Levi's orders.

_I've got your back, Captain. Even when you hurt me._

Eren knows Levi enjoys it, and maybe even depends on it sometimes. Eren knows how, after his whole squad was obliterated, and they'd returned to their headquarters, how Levi sought him out before the sun set, took him by the hand and led him to his room. Levi fucked him multiple times throughout the night. Eren couldn't sleep anyway, and he was grateful to have someone there beside him to help forget some of the sadness. Every time Levi peeled himself away and turned over in his bed there were a few moments when it didn't seem so lonely, and their lives didn't seem so futile and dangerous.

So even if Eren doesn't want to do it, he never refuses Levi.

~~~

"Eren, are you crying?"

Eren startles. He's let his mind wander as they were doing it, and he's not even certain if Levi finished or not. He wipes at his eyes, finding some moisture there, but for the life of him can't think of why he could be crying.

"Did I hurt you?" Levi asks, and it's a real question this time, and there's real regret in his eyes.

No, he didn't hurt him. And even if he did, Eren would just heal. Eren just feels embarrassed at how he's making his captain worry.

"I'm fine," he says. He looks up at the wooden beams above Levi's bed. It's been harder to keep their arrangement under wraps in the small mountain cottage, with Eren's classmates sleeping on the other side of thin walls, and seeing him go in and out of Levi's room. Eren wonders if it matters. Levi never flaunts anything about what he does with Eren in private when they are in public, but Levi never really flaunts anything at all. He seems neither embarrassed nor proud of what they have. Eren is perhaps a little of both.

"Eren," Levi says, and Eren can now piece together that no, Levi hasn't come yet, he's still completely hard, but just stopped moving. "What's the matter?"

Eren is taken aback. Usually Levi's questions are pointed, with binary possible answers. He shakes his head, not comprehending what Levi is asking about.

"Eren, do you resent me?" Levi says, pulling out.

"Of course not!" Eren says, more loudly than he intended. He grabs Levi's shoulders before the other can pull all the way back and leave Eren's vicinity. 

Levi puts more oil on himself before thrusting back in. "You look out of it. Do you hate this?"

Eren's heart jumps inside his chest. Yes, he realizes. He hates the sex, absolutely hates it. "You're very talkative tonight, Captain."

"When I was your age..." Levi pants out, sweating and having to pause for thrusting, "I didn't... like it much... not with the people... in the Underground... not with the military later on either..."

Eren nods.

"Fuck--" Levi groans out and Eren guesses that he's finished. He's surprised when Levi kisses him. They've kissed only a handful of times in the months they've known each other. It's very brief anyway. Levi rolls over and lazily gropes for Eren's cock to finish him off by hand. Eren closes his eyes.

"Stay alive, Eren," Levi says quietly, right beside Eren's ear. "Then you can take someone under your wing once you're older."

Eren sighs. Is that some sort of apology? The promise that he'll get his turn as well? He has no need for any kind of repayment or reward. He knows what he's doing it for. He's doing it to show loyalty, and gratitude for being protected and taught by the best. It's a compliment to him, all of it.

"I'd rather see the ocean..." he mumbles out, and immediately regrets it as some kind of contradiction of Levi's words.

Levi only chuckles. "Why not both? I want both."

Levi cleans Eren up and invites him to stay the night in his bed. Eren thanks him but heads back to his own bunk in the other room. He falls asleep sincerely hoping Levi can get the second half of his wish. Fulfillment of the first half is in his power, and he'll never withhold it from Levi, never.


	2. Soldier Bride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the counterpart chapter to the first one, written closely aligned with Levi's POV and with some backstory. I wanted to write it after I got several comments on the first part that seemed to be distressed or confused about why Levi and Eren were in this kind of relationship.

Sometimes Eren moans and tenses and Levi stops, waiting for him to say something, to ask for more or to tell him to pull out and get off of him. Eren never does either one, only waits for a few moments, then relaxes his body again in a silent invitation to keep going.

This is why he claimed responsibility for Eren, first in private, then in public. He finds that uneasy balance of ferocious obedience very inviting.  


These kinds of relationships are common enough in the military, and when Levi walked past Erwin to take a closer look at Eren in his cell and offer to watch over him, Erwin knew what he meant. When Zackley asked if Levi was going to personally take responsibility for Eren, many in the audience had no question what such a relationship would entail.

No one had any question, and yet the first time Levi went down the stone staircase to visit Eren in the dungeon, the first night in their new headquarters, he felt a certain amount of trepidation.

"Let's get off," he grumbled tersely as he slid in beside Eren under the thin blanket, afraid to say anything more elaborate because he knew it would sound awkward. He reached down the waistband of Eren's pants without ceremony and took hold of Eren's cock. The teenager came fast, emitting a little gasp before averting his eyes. Levi brought himself to completion thrusting between Eren's legs. Eren tried to look stoic and dutiful, probably not guessing that it was Levi's first time having his word be law in the bedroom. Levi thought about ordering Eren to look him in the eyes as he thrust, but could not bring himself to do it. Pain and humiliation were almost unavoidable in these arrangements, but both should never happen at once.

~~~

Levi doesn't know how old he was when he had his first experience. He was certainly younger than Eren, and much shorter-- but who in the world could know what his age was, down in the Underground where so many people were malnourished and so many whores were having unwanted children they'd abandon to the mercy of the streets-- not only parentless, but often nameless and ageless.

Levi remembers his mother as a concept, but not in any tangible terms. Kenny he remembers vividly and acridly. Kenny took him in, fed him, clothed him, taught him skills and habits, and fucked him raw into the bed every now and then. He must have been young, very young, Levi thinks, because even when Kenny bothered to touch him, Levi came dry the first few years. He remembers how it felt, being scared of the one person in the world that he absolutely had to trust.

Kenny would come home, sometimes taking his clothes off right away because they were spattered with blood, and fling them in the tub where Levi did their laundry using stove-boiled water and lye soap that made the skin on his hands peel off afterwards.

"You'll do the wash later, kid, yeah?" Kenny would tell him, and Levi would nod, trying to guess whether Kenny had already stopped by the bar on the way home and had a few drinks.

When Kenny was drunk he was sloppy and took a long time, and would sometimes forget to pull out and Levi would just have to fall asleep with a heavy possessive arm over his body and his ass still full of flaccid cock, burning because they'd used nothing but spit. When Kenny was sober he'd prepare Levi better, but also do strange painful things. Some nights he'd trickle the melted wax off the nightstand candle all down Levi's back, other nights just bite him hard on the shoulders and neck. What Levi hated the most was when Kenny choked him during sex. It was the one time he fought back during their living together-- when Kenny was holding him down, crushing his windpipe shut with one bony hand, and didn't seem to be planning to release his grip until he reached his peak. 

"I deserved that one," Kenny said, laughing, getting up off the floor where Levi had somehow had the strength to shove him off. "You just squeeze so good down there when you're scared shitless. Couldn't help it."

Kenny made Levi finish him off with his hand and they went to bed together, Levi embracing Kenny's wizened, old, spider-like body because Kenny was the one who gave him a safe warm place to sleep and eat, even if those things came with the price of household and bedroom duties.

~~~

Erwin Smith was a different story altogether. Levi was an adult when he met him, and he also knew what it meant when his face had gotten shoved in the mud after the Survey Corps soldiers finally caught up with him. He was surprised, in fact, at how many days after his joining the Corps Erwin took his sweet time approaching him.

"I would really be honored if you'd join me in my room tonight," was how he put it, and Levi almost burst out laughing. Erwin wasn't even one of the aristocrats that Levi had both ridiculed and envied while living in the slums, but he was close enough to the real thing when he talked this stuffily.

Levi enjoyed the thought that he was getting promoted-- now sharing the bed of the squad leader who was likeliest to inherit the commander title from Shadis. He had been so cordial that Levi somehow began to believe he'd breeze through their evening together, and maybe even enjoy it.

Erwin in bed was less kind and more intimidating than Levi imagined. Despite the wooing politeness of the initial invitation, every instruction inside Erwin's bedroom was given imperiously, no pretense that they were anything but higherup and subordinate. Take off your uniform. Get on the bed. No, on all fours. Can't you get more of it down? Suck harder.

He would make a fine commander, at least, Levi mused-- confident, decisive, and unsentimental.

Some kind of peppermint oil was what Erwin used on him, and had been using on him ever since, unless they were far from home and he had forgotten to take it with him. That smell of peppermint suffused the air of the whole room and made Levi feel just a little classier, just a little less naked and nervous, until his body started to tingle.

"Makes it lively," Erwin half explained half apologized when he could see Levi start to squirm. "Your ass is winking at me, how coy." Erwin chuckled, and Levi buried his face in his hands, wishing he could stop "winking" and feeling his ass pulled apart and exposed by his superior officer.

Kenny hurt him, but he never shamed him.

Erwin shamed Levi only in jest, and Levi learned to live with it, never really playing along, but not complaining or responding to it either. He liked having access to Erwin's sink with running water, and indoor toilet, and he enjoyed sleeping on a spring mattress, and he even enjoyed entrusting himself to Erwin to some degree, enjoyed the praise and pat that followed a job well done. Levi even took some pleasure in the murmured rumors that began circulating in the Survey Corps and beyond-- that Erwin Smith had finally helped himself to a soldier bride.

~~~

Eren's body is a collection of long, tan limbs and young, taut flesh that's soft and firm exactly where Levi wants it. Eren's body is a comfort-- not quite glamorous enough to be called a luxury, but unpresuming, familiar, and most of all, available. Comfort and availability are not to be underestimated when life is harsh and unpredictable. Eren's body is Home and Bed in a job that ensures Levi never really has a permanent place to rest or sleep.

It's not only Eren's body that Levi enjoys, of course. Levi would never have taken an interest if he hadn't heard the crazed determination in Eren's voice in answer to their question about his intentions. The Survey Corps has reined in that crazedness, and Levi has had a big hand in that too-- teaching Eren to focus on menial labor, and appreciate his position as a soldier as a privilege and not a birthright.

Yet Levi knows perhaps better than anyone that all of Eren's obedience, all of his good behavior, is a choice, an ongoing choice. The part of him that was emotional, energetic and so ferally, childishly vengeful is still there, simmering underneath-- you couldn't beat that out of him, nor could you frighten it out of him, no matter what they'd led the military tribunal audience to believe.

Eren's obedience and submission is so compelling because he's strong enough to choose otherwise. So when Levi takes Eren's body on whatever happens to be his bed that night, he loves the sensations, but he also loves the knowledge that Eren could refuse if he really wanted. Eren doesn't refuse, even though Levi can see he has no interest of his own in it.

_"You know what I love about fucking you?" Erwin once said, after the fact, when they were just lying on the bed on their sides, facing one another._

_Levi shook his head and closed his eyes, trying to convey that he was tired, and he had morning exercises to attend to tomorrow, and that he could tell that this conversation was headed nowhere good._

_"I love that you're Humanity's Strongest, much more famous than me by now, and yet you still come when I call you over."_

_Levi turned away and put the pillow over his head to drown out any other vaguely unkind observations Erwin would decide to make that night._

Maybe Levi's beginning to understand where Erwin was coming from.

What was mere obedience early on becomes unmistakable loyalty when Levi's new squad is formed and they move into the cottage. Eren operates on either instinct or observation, and manages to anticipate many of Levi's needs. He is so keen to please Levi in every sphere of life that Levi wonders how he ever got along without him.

He also wonders whether he's just like Kenny after all.

_"What would I do without you, Kid?" Kenny sometimes asked himself rhetorically, walking by Levi crouching over the washboard or leaning over the stove as he cooked their dinner stew. He'd tousle Levi's hair, and Levi would wonder why adults were so pleased by simple things like chores being done._

At the end of a long day, it's Eren who's made sure his sheets are laundered, it's Eren who makes sure the dishes are washed and put away after dinner, it's Eren who gives Levi tea brewed to an appropriate strength. And of course it's Eren who comes into his room when called, who strips down, neither clumsy nor tackily seductive about it, who climbs onto Levi's bed on all fours. How Eren manages to show up clean and fresh every night, Levi can barely figure out. They have no running water, the supply of soap is scarce and precious. Levi takes a lot of care to keep himself presentable, but he's surprised a teenager manages to do the same.

Sometimes Levi wants to put his gratitude into words. Sometimes Levi think it's more than gratitude-- that Eren means so much to him he might consider sacrificing himself for him. Sometimes Levi wonders if this affection he feels passes muster for what people call 'love,' but then he has to wonder if that means that Kenny and Erwin loved him too. The idea repulses him and he tucks it away, far from his current thoughts.

What's more, this 'love' is decidedly unrequited. Eren respects him and values him, but Levi notices the slight movements where Eren initially recoils from his touch, betraying how much he dislikes it. Levi has considered inviting Eren into bed and surprising him by doing nothing but lying beside him, as if that would prove something, if not to Eren then maybe only to himself. His sexual drive ends up always get the better of him and he rolls over and fucks the teenager every time. Because every time could be the last time, and this urgency translates into the speed of Levi's hips too.

It isn't love, it's desperation for something comfortable in an unpleasant world.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt on the kink meme that I found very interesting. (http://snkkink.dreamwidth.org/13546.html?thread=8844010)
> 
> "In the Survey Corps veterans frequently mentor promising recruits in exchange for sex (think Japanese shudo or Greek pederasty). Levi has taken Eren under his wing, and eventually makes it clear that he expects Eren to put out.
> 
> Eren's not interested in sleeping with Levi; he may not be ready for sex, period. But he lets Levi do as he pleases because he feels like he can't say no to his mentor and superior. I want to be clear here: when I say non-con, I don't want violent rape. Rather, it should be a fill about Eren being pressured into a relationship that he doesn't want and the mental effects of being in a coercive relationship.
> 
> \+ Eren doesn't think of the relationship as rape. He didn't say no and he didn't struggle, so it's consensual, right? Right?  
> ++ Levi is really good in bed and makes a lot of effort to make the experience pleasurable for Eren. This makes Eren feel complicit in the relationship, which just makes him more miserable. If the sex makes him feel so good, why does he hate it?  
> +++++++++ Levi endured similar relationships, both before and after he joined the Survey Corps. He's aware that Eren dislikes having sex with him, because he felt the same thing as a teen/young man. However, he thinks of predatory relationships as part of the normal stages of life (think of how abused children may grow up to be abusers)."


End file.
